


Sweets and Liars: A Hansel and Gretel Tale

by JadeDraggy2017



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe, Family Relationships - Freeform, Gen, Hansel and Gretel AU, Persona 5 Spoilers, Platonic Relationships, fairy tale AU, kid!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-09 15:02:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19478341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeDraggy2017/pseuds/JadeDraggy2017
Summary: Ren is a good boy, but his parents and village don't think so.Goro is not a bad boy, but he's too afraid of his father and the village to not be.





	Sweets and Liars: A Hansel and Gretel Tale

**Author's Note:**

> Now that the project is closed I can post my work for the [Persona 5 Sotrybook Zine](https://twitter.com/p5storybook)! It's Hansel and Gretel starring our two favorite wild cards! Because I can't stop writing about them... hahaha
> 
> Follow me for insanity:  
> [tumblr](https://adraggynamedjade.tumblr.com/)  
> [@draggynamed](https://twitter.com/draggynamed)  
> 

_ Once upon a time, in a village far, far away, there lived a little boy named Ren, who all the adults hated. He lived with his mother and father and was the terror of town. But in Ren’s eyes, he was only a good boy, pointing out all the bad things his parents and the adults around him tolerated. They were mean to animals, mean to each other, but most especially they were all mean to children. And their mayor was the worst. _

_ Day in and day out, Ren got into trouble with every adult he met. They would become so angry they’d lecture his parents! Finally fed up with it all, one-day Ren’s father took him out into the woods on the far edge of their village. It had long been rumored that those who entered would become lost… _

“You have to wait here,” his father pointed to a fallen tree. “Don’t leave until I come back for you. This is your punishment.”

“I didn’t do anything bad,” Ren told him. “Those adults were stealing from kids. They should be punished. Not me.” But his father didn’t listen. He only walked away.

And so Ren waited. He waited so long the sun started to set. He knew if it was dark he’d never be able to find his way home. Luckily his father had not taken him far into the forest. He started heading home, hoping to meet his father along the way.

But instead, Ren came across another little boy. He didn’t look as confident about being in the woods as he did. He was sitting next to a tree, alone and crying. Ren ran up to him.

“What are you doing here?” The other boy jumped up, revealing his shirt was smudged with dirt and grime and his face was marred with scratches and bruises.

He asked Ren the same, “What are you doing here?”

“My father left me here as punishment, but I’m going home.”

“You can go home?” The other boy asked.

“You can’t?”

“My father left me here, he said he doesn’t want me anymore now that my mother is gone.”

“What’s your name?”

“Goro.”

“Come with me then, you can come to my home. Just follow me, I’ll help you.”  
  
So, Ren took Goro’s hand and lead him out of the woods. But Ren was wrong, he couldn’t keep Goro. And his father, the mayor of their town of awful adults, was furious Goro had been brought back. Goro told his father he didn’t want to leave the woods, but Ren made him. Something Ren knew was a lie. Ren’s parents were lectured again. This time the mayor threatened to punish them if they didn’t do something about Ren’s misbehavior.

That night Ren heard his parents talking, his mother telling his father this time he needed to take Ren deeper into the woods, so he wouldn’t find his way back. So, Ren got up early the next day and stuffed his pockets full of rocks from the garden.

Again his father took him out into the woods, this time so far in the trees made it hard to see the sun. Along the way, Ren dropped rocks to mark where he had been. His father found a tree stump and told him to sit on it.

“Don’t move until I come back. This is your punishment.”   
“The mayor is wrong!” Ren shouted at his father. “Goro and I didn’t do anything bad!” But again his father said nothing, he only walked away from him.

Ren did as he was told, sitting on the tree stump until the sun started to set. He got up and started to follow his rocks back to town. Along the way he found Goro again, wandering around the woods.

“You’re back!” Ren ran up to him.

“So are you,” Goro looked down, worried Ren would be upset he lied. The little boy looked like he hadn’t slept, and his face was red as if he had a fever. “I’ve been walking forever. I don’t know how to get back. But you can go back without me.”

“It's okay, I have a trail,” Ren took his hand and showed him the rocks. “We’ll go both go back together.” Ren watched Goro look up at him and smile. He wasn’t worried Goro lied. Ren was used to people lying about him. They both followed the rocks out of the woods back to Ren’s house.

Again Ren was scolded for returning before his father came to get him. And again, the mayor was angry to see his son back from the woods. This time, however, Ren insisted that he should keep Goro since the Mayor didn’t want him to live with him.  
  
But his parents refused.  
  
“Children are the property of their parents,” his mother told them.  
  
“It’s the Mayor’s right to do what he wants with his son,” his father told him.  
  
“But he’s mean and he’s cruel and Goro is unhappy with him!”  
  
But Goro also denied Ren’s words. “I’m fine with being punished,” he said. Yet he couldn’t look at Ren as he said it.  
  
It didn’t matter how much he protested, in the end, the mayor took Goro and told Ren’s parents that if they didn’t do something about their son by tomorrow they would be in trouble.

That night Ren heard his mother tell his father again to take him away. “This time walk all day. Take him so far in he cannot get back!” Once his parents were asleep Ren snuck into the kitchen and stole a loaf a bread, knowing he could never carry enough rocks to drop for a full day.

The next morning he followed his father into the woods. Slowly tearing off bread crumbs to drop behind him. And further behind him still, the crows flew down the trees and gobbled them up. His father stopped walking at sunset and told Ren to wait against a tree until he returned.   
This time Ren didn’t protest.

After an hour Ren started walking back down the bread trail, only to find that it stopped in the middle of the forest where the crows had all gathered and feasted.

In a panic, he started running, trying to find his way out, but instead only became more lost. He ran and ran until he ran right into Goro, doing the exact same thing.

“Ren!” Goro was surprised to see him. He smiled sheepishly, worried the other boy would be upset. “Your father brought you back too? I’m sorry you’re being punished for bringing me home.”

“I don’t mind,” Ren shook his head. “But we can’t get home. The crows ate my trail and I’m lost.”

“Then, at least we are lost together.” Ren took Goro’s hand and they wandered the forest for the rest of the night. The two took up hiding under an overgrown fallen tree and went to sleep.

In the morning Ren woke up to Goro sitting up and smelling the air. “Do you smell that?” He asked. “I smell something sweet.”

Ren didn’t smell anything, but he got up and followed Goro. The closer they got to the source, the more Ren’s nose started to smell it too. It smelled like cookies and cake and treats. They followed their noses until they came to a clearing in the woods. Right in the middle was a house made of sugary sweets.

“Look at that!” Goro let go of Ren’s hand and ran for the house. He stuck his finger in the flowers, they were made of frosting and licked them clean. “It’s all sugar! It’s delicious!”

Ren sat down next to Goro, watching the other boy stuff his face. Ren didn’t eat too much. “You like sugar, don’t you?” He laughed at Goro’s cream covered face.

“I don’t get to eat it at home. I don’t really eat at all at home since Mom died.”

As the boys ate the front door of the house opened, and a man with a long nose, a bald head, and a sinister grin came out wearing a gold suit. “Who’s out there eating at my house?”

Frightened by the voice, Goro used the inside of his shirt to wipe his face clean, but Ren stood up ready to face whatever nasty adult came their way.

“Look here, two naughty children, eating at my home. What do you have to say for yourselves?”

“We were hungry,” Ren protested. “And you have so much house!”

“I didn’t eat anything,” Goro lied. “I tried to stop him, but he insisted we should eat.”

Ren turned to the other boy, stunned, and Goro looked away, too ashamed to see his reaction.

“Bad children like you need to be rehabilitated.” The man reached down and grabbed both their arms. He dragged them into the house and turned to Ren. “For your rehabilitation, you will help me as my slave and help me prepare my feast. You’ll learn to listen to adults, and never disobey.”

He then took Goro and locked him in a cage, “And for your reward for being a good boy, I’ll feed you until you’re nice and fat, then you’ll be my dinner: as all good children exist to sustain adults.”

That night Ren spoke to Goro in his cage. “I’m not going to let him eat you. I’ll come up with a plan.”

“This is all your fault, Ren.” Goro cried. “Why did you keep taking me back to town? Why did you get lost? Why did you let me eat from the house? I didn’t want any of this. Why didn’t you just leave me alone?” All night long Ren listened to Goro blame him. He was too scared to do anything else.

Each day was the same. The old man, a wizard that called himself Yaldabaoth, would feed Goro tons of food, and made Ren help. While Goro ate, Ren helped around the house. He noticed while helping the old wizard that he couldn’t see very well. So, on the second day, Ren gave Goro a stick and told him to wrap his sleeve in it every time the wizard checked to see how fat he was.

By the seventh day, the Yaldabaoth was furious that every time he checked to see if Goro was ready to eat he was as thin a twig. He was tired of feeding only the child and wanted to feed himself. But Goro was too thin for a good meal. He’d have to cook Ren as well.

So Yaldabaoth told Ren to gather wood for his oven, and then to start a fire. Ren did as he was told, but when Yaldabaoth told him to lean in and see if the fire was hot enough to cook with, Ren disobeyed.

“I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know how to cook.” He lied.

“You, stupid boy,” The wizard leaned forward next to the oven. “Like this, just lean in like this.”

Ren mimicked him standing on the other side of the oven, “Like this?”

“No! In front of the oven!” Ren asked the wizard to show him; and exasperate and tired from hunger he did so, leaning forward into the oven. Ren rushed up behind him and pushed on his legs; sending him head first into the fire. He shut the door and pushed the table in front of it so he couldn’t get out.

Ren let Goro out of his cage and the two ran away into the forest, leaving the wizard to burn down to nothing but his melted gold suit.

As they wandered the forest, Ren started to smell something. It was warm and inviting, but a little bit bitter and strong. Goro told him he couldn’t smell it, just the burning sweets. But Ren followed his nose to a second cottage in a clearing of the woods.

Outside an older man saw with a black beard, glasses and wearing a white suit. Leaning out the window talking to him was a woman with short black hair, and glasses wearing a black sweater.

“Where did you kids come from?” The woman asked.

“Our parents left us here in the woods,” Ren told him.

“Hoo boy, you must be from that rotten village. You two can stay here then.” The man said as he got up and opened his door for them. “We already have a daughter. She’ll be delighted to have brothers.”

Ren started for the house, but Goro stayed behind. “Aren’t you coming?” He asked.

“I lied to the wizard,” Goro told him. “I lied to my dad. I lied to your parents too. I blamed you for everything. But you still helped me. You helped me every time. Why?”

Ren reached out to offer him his hand, “You were just scared. You don’t know how to deal with adults that treat you bad. But I can help you. Just follow me.”

Goro hesitantly took his hand and followed Ren into the new cottage, and their new home.

_ And they lived happily ever after. _


End file.
